The Regulatory Trap

This chapter examines how quality assurance (QA) regimes in Asian higher education, originally designed to safeguard standards, have evolved into control cultures that constrain innovation, demoralise staff, and encourage performative compliance. Through examples from Singapore, Malaysia, China, and India, the chapter analyses how documentation-heavy systems prioritise auditable processes over meaningful pedagogy. It introduces the concept of the Regulatory Trap to describe how institutions become locked in defensive behaviour, limiting creativity and responsiveness. Drawing on developmental quality models, the chapter proposes trust-based, participatory, and context-sensitive approaches to QA that emphasise ongoing learning rather than checklist-driven conformity. It argues that reframing QA as developmental is essential for enabling PEIs to balance accountability with innovation.